Tag Archives: TARDIS

I put together a version of this in the past, but with a little more experience and a few new ideas, I’ve chosen to revisit it. Think of this one as the “Page One Edit”, named so because we get to find out just what “page one” and that whole deal with the leaf was all about before the episode ends, rather than wait for a filler pre-titles when you reach Rings of Akaten.

You might think I’m robbing Clara of any and all intrigue by tossing in her origin at the very end of this episode, but not only does her character have very little of that to begin with (as well as any sort of trait to go along with it), I thought it makes for a nice little subversion of the triumphant way the original cut ends, with The Doc having gained a new companion and the thrill of new adventure and mystery on the horizon. Here, he solves the mystery and is utterly perplexed by it. I think that serves as a better ending…don’t leave it with the feeling the Doctor WILL get to the bottom of things, point out very clearly that he CAN’T.

A mystery The Doctor can’t solve makes us worry, and makes us wonder. That is how you kick off a new series of adventures, that is what we call a jumping on point.

In addition to the new ending, I’ve gone in and added the prequel minisode from the series seven DVD as part of the pre-titles. While it’s a little too on-the-nose and doesn’t add much, I still think it’s a nice refresher course if you’re not too familiar with this stretch of the series or Clara.

A few scenes have been rearranged too. Clara accessing the wi-fi now comes before the helpless man’s ominous warning to the internet community, and I removed the whole talk about the Woman Twice Dead and The Doctor’s madness to better seaugeway into him receiving the phone call.

This edit mergers the first episode of Doctor Who’s tenth series with three other episodes from that particular series, removing all the pretentious teasing of what’s inside The Vault that goes ultimately nowhere and has an obvious reveal handed to us within minutes of the episode

Extremis is the first part of the Monk trilogy, which really isn’t that much to write home about, other than virtually any scene that includes Michelle Gomez. It is that scenery chewing that compels me also to use the last few precious minutes of “The Lie Of the Land”, the conclusion to the trilogy, as a coda to this episode, replacing the original ending with The Doctor trying to wipe Bill’s mind of her adventure.

I’ve also decided to insert Bill and her friends finding a new house to live in from the episode “Knock, Knock”. This particular plot point doesn’t actually go anywhere in this edit, it’s just a nice little set up that gives us more of a slice of life with Bill, plus I like the atmosphere of Bill with mates more than putting up with her step-mum.

CHANGES

– Begin with original pre-credits scene from “The Pilot”
– After titles, we play some footage from “Extremis”
– “Knock Knock” footage takes over after Missy tells The Doctor to let her live
– Just as Bill is hesitant to sign the contract to move into the house, we cut to The Doctor’s “Time” lecture. Producer and director credit scenes cut
– We cut to “Extremis” footage after The Doctor says “It means life”
– We cut back to “The Pilot” after Nardole tells The Doctor he can kick his arse
– We cut back to “Extremis” after the Puddle establishes the link with the pilot
– White flash cross fade from “Extremis” to Christmas at the University in “The Pilot”
– Cut Heather meeting Bill outside the university and repeating what she says
– Cut the TARDIS landing in Australia
– Last of the “Extremis” footage plays after Bill notices her tears
– “Lie of the Land” ending used as final scene

There really isn’t a hell of a lot of point to the sexism deflection that this episode pads itself out with. Within the context of current history, I suppose there’s some fleeting relevancy, but Doctor Who ought to be timeless, and it’s characters should not be dragged down into political soap boxing, however subtle or unsubtle. This is what has killed the show for many a true fan, and as much as I still love the show, it does make me cringe a little too. It’s like attending a council meeting with your parents on a Sunday, reminding you of the real world awaiting you in the week ahead. What happened to weekend/holiday escapism?

So no, as I found out, the sexism need not exist at all, as you’ll find here…pretty minimal edit all the same, nothing too radical, just keeping it tightly focused on the adventure and not the agenda.

CHANGES

-Pre-titles are now the aborted regeneration sequence from “The Doctor Falls”

-Ben and Polly cut. On top of their “Nu Who” versions contributing little to the story , I never was a fan of the weird aspect ratio fidgeting.

-“I am younger” exchange removed

– References to Twelve as a nurse removed, also the exchange about the brandy and guitar are omitted as well as the sexist remarks about Polly

-Classic Doctor no longer says “sunglasses? Indoors?”, I found the initial reaction when he sees them better than anything spoken afterwards and it informs the audience of how he feels anyway

-We cut to Twelve putting the sonic shades on after Bill says she used to travel with him

-Cut Bill’s initial reveal as a member of Testimony. I hold it back a bit longer just for more of a shock reveal.

-First Doctor’s regeneration to Patrick Troughton cut in an attempt to, for one, avoid the aspect ratio fidgeting, and “fix” the continuity error of the Doctor collapsing before he opens the TARDIS door to let Ben and Polly back in.

Shortened Capaldi’s exit speech considerably. Decides to regenerate after he realizes the universe will get it all wrong without him.

Also, I chose to omit Jodie getting booted out of the TARDIS, partially because I intend to open my fanedit of her first episode with a reprise of the final scene of this episode, and when that happens, THEN you’ll see our feisty female cope with free-falling.

So long Moffat, off you go to give Dracula some bite…just don’t give him a cavity.

Debuts for Doctors are, like regeneration, a bit dodgy, you never know what you’re going to end up with, but it’d better be good.

Deep Breath is good for the most part, and this by no means an attempt to reinvent the wheel, rather instead we take the wheel and add it to an altogether different motor.

Fanediting is very much like the broom analogy in the story, which, lucky for you I’ve kept in. After a while, is it the same film or show? Of course it is’nt, and that’s the point.

But with the way story arcs in television and film series, one can glue things together a tiny bit more confidant that it can mesh well, and create the illusion that some things stay very much the same.

So we come to this, a chance to launch Peter Capaldi’s Doctor a bit differently. An hour-long opening with Twelve mulling over whether or not he’s a good man, complete with a scene that really enforces whether or not he is as he dispatches Half-Face Man at the start of the story.

I figure if you’re going to relaunch Doctor Who to the casual crowd, you really should try things the way Russel T. Davies managed…we’ve seen the regeneration, we’ve seen previous Doctors work out their mission statement in their openers…let’s see Capaldi struggle with his mission statement right off the bat and not have him try to work out if he’s got Clara’s name right or if he can really complain about things now that he’s scottish. Let’s be like our rebel time lord and be rebellious…let us see him kick up a fuss, be proactive, and kick arse as soon as he see him.

Let’s stick him in the midst of a proper adventure. A typical Saturday Night out for him and his mates. Most of the story you’ve seen unfold in the original cut of Deep Breath is elaborated on within the restaurant confrontation with Half-Face Man, it’s almost as if Deep Breath could have just been a “day in the life” minisode before the main event.

And, appropriately enough, the privilege of facing off against Capaldi should lie with The Daleks.

Outside of The Power of the Daleks, no other Doctor’s debut story has opened with them facing him. Odd given their long history, but they’re mostly reserved for Doctor’s finales in the new stuff (except for Tennant), so I figured “what the heck?”

Changes in full
-Kicking things off in the edit right off the bat is the final third of Deep Breath, and the Doctor’s companions knee-deep in danger. It’s a typical Saturday night with the new Doctor introducing himself by pouring a glass and then debating life and death with The Half-Man. What serves as a decisive stand off becomes an enigmatic introduction to our favorite time lord.

-The titles kick in after Clara finds the TARDIS is missing from the courtyard

-First use of Into the Dalek footage kicks off after the titles, with the new Doctor answering the distress call and reaching the asteroid base where he learns of the Dalek being held prisoner. We cut before we see what he sees

-Resume Deep Breath footage here with Vastra assuring Clara The Doctor will return for her. We end the footage once they arrive in Glasgow, but cut before they talk about buying chips and coffee.

–Cut to Danny Pink arriving for class. His drill sergeant routine with the boys has been cut

-Cut The Doctor and Clara talking about coffee and glasgow.

At the 26: 29 mark of the edit , you hear a door clicking just before Clara closes the door in the shot, this is not a miscue with the audio, that is actually The Doctor opening the TARDIS door, which becomes clear in the next shot. I was worried people would mistake that for an error, but rest assured it isn’t.

A 45-minute trim of the 2012 Doctor Who Christmas special The Snowmen.

Christmas is coming, and if the Great Intelligence has his way, so is eternal winter. Sentient and savage snow is descending, eager to consume us all, can The Doctor, the Paternoster Gang, and nanny Clara save a family from the merciless lady of the lake?

The intention is trim the fat on the 2012 Christmas special, removing try-too-hard comedic banter and time wasting filler scenes.

Changes:

No comedic banter between 11 and Strax in either of their two big scenes together
– No One Word Test Scene
– The Doctor and Clara’s first meeting shortened (no “two words”, no drawn out scene with the memory worm)
– Clara does not visit the cloud on the first try
– As with my “Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith” edit, the End Credits have been removed (they go by quite fast and look very blurry) and I use the shortened Tennant end theme for the outro.

In it’s infancy, this edit was known as “The Moment Has Come” and was released on this blog back in 2015, but the purging of my previous MEGA account lost the product to the tearful rains of time, so I’ve now decided to revisit it with a snappier title and a few improvements to the editing.

The episode now begins with the very unveiling of the “Gallifrey Falls” painting, and the titles follow Matt saying “the day he killed them all”, we have a shortened version of the RTD era Doctor Who theme, and then back to the museum for most of the story.

I decided to hold back from the War Doctor’s introduction scene until the time came for him to meet The Moment and fetch the Fez, luckily, there’s a perfect moment to bridge from the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors meeting to that scene as soon as Ten says “so where did it go?” when inquiring about the Fez. Very lucky to have had that scene there.

The destruction of Gallifrey originally came about in my first edit as soon as Clara found the War Doctor had vanished from the chair. Here we get to see the War Doctor actually trigger the big red button that leads to the obliteration of the planet.

Most of the story is the same, I opted to also omit any scene with the painting of Elizabeth and Ten getting smashed in by the Zygons for reasons that become quite clear at the end. I was never really satisfied with how Whoflix ended his Tennant cut, and thought it needed a better closing shot than just his TARDIS materializing. So I spared the painting of Elizabeth and The Doctor from destruction so we can have a quick pan over to it one more time.

And here we are, my edit of Day of the Moon, my final edit of 2016, and there will be plenty more to come in 2017, I can assure you.

Aside from the changes you’ll have seen already in the sample, I cut out stuff pertaining to Canton being gone for “days” after being inside the prison (in reality, hanging out with The Doctor and chums) and ended the episode right after Canton and Nixon having the conversation about Canton’s choice of fiance.

I fully intend to get around to the first half of this story in a much more wibbly-wobbly way soon, and I may just make it the first edit of 2017. Stay tuned.